To run harder, or Arda Turan; That is the question: The (ahem) Winter Transfer Thread

Alexis and Pedro did not like splitting time as the 3rd forward next to Messi and Neymar, once Suarez was signed only Pedro was willing to stay, and that only lasted a season. Plus, given Luis's cost we needed the money from selling one of them and Alexis was both happy to go and also fetched more on the open market. After he adapted so well in England that actually increased Pedro's value, once Pedro too decided that being 4th choice for 3 spots was not for him either.

I don't think Alexis is better than Neymar and I think Suarez is better than both.

 

Na . Neymar is an amazing talent and getting better .... He's only been here a couple of years and he's getting better all the time .

Barca are not playing well not just Neymar ... Messi was struggling and don't get me started on Rakitic / Iniesta / the keeper etc

 

Alexis is more on form I guess right now, but overall Neymar is better, with a higher upside. I felt like I was the only one who wanted Alexis to stay on these boards lol. There was no way he was going to stay, with all the fans and media hounding him, playing out of position.

 

I like both Alexis and Neymar but wasn't upset to see Alexis go and I would sell Neymar if the price was right (not within La Liga of course). I don't think Neymar reaches his fullest potential at Barcelona, partly because he has to share the limelight with Messi and (to a lesser degree) Suarez and partly because I think he'd thrive somewhere with more wide open play that you don't get when teams park the bus and defend with 10 as so often happens against Barça. Suarez, in comparison, seems like he is the in the perfect side.

 

Neymar's time here will soon come . Messi will very soon be moving back into midfield playing the quarterback role ( I think ) and that will leave the stage side open for Neymar and to a lesser extent Suarez to hog the limelight so to speak .

 

I see it a little differently, I think Neymar is in the perfect side, because he's learning from the best players. Suarez and Messi command a lot of attention too, and to be fair, we haven't come across too many parked buses this season. I think the last time anyone played ultra defensively against us was Roma.
Where would he find the play more open? I only ask because if he were to move away, there are only a couple of teams in the world that he could hope to have such high level teammates.

He definitely led Brazil in the World Cup, no question. So he knows how to lead, he made us realize how ordinary Brazil is these days without him. Although its his own fault he was suspended.

Ive been impressed with how he tried to take over the match against Sevilla, he was almost unplayable in the last 25 mins. Plus yesterday's match, he should have drawn a third penalty, but the ref probably felt bad giving another one lol.

 

I would like to see him in England, with more of the end-to-end action. I do not doubt his effort, talent or ability to adapt himself to the Barcelona system. I feel like he would just fit better in a different system. I also wouldn't mind turning a page on the transfer scandal and all the lawsuits.

 

Well I do love the idea of getting a player on a Bosman, last time we did it I think it was MvBommel, though we also got Affelay on the cheap as he was 6 months from being out of contract. Not sure if Lavezzi is the best for us but as a 4th forward it seems hard to argue against: http://www.sport-english.com/en/new...lavezzi-agreed-join-barca-next-summer-4599698

 

He'd just get constantly kicked up in the air and then labeled a diver . .. La Liga is THE place for Neymar IMHO

 

I read we were considering getting Herrera from ManU on loan !?!?

 

My post was taken from the media .. yours was just a poor attempt at humour ..

 

Graham Hunter reporting this morning that for the first time since Messi burst onto the scene many years ago , Messi's people have said that he'd consider offers from PL clubs ... even included a source ....

 

Does this base on the standard answer to a question about future he gave a day or two ago? Like, "do you see yourself playing outside Barca?" to which he said something like "I'm with Barca now and all is cool, but who knows about the future". Or to something else?

There are BS rumours about this or that club wanting to sign him every now and then, and sometimes those stories say that "Messi might consider it". Doesn't look like Barca fans should be losing sleep over this "revelation".

 

Neymar is a better fit with Messi and the rest of the team than Alexis ever was. Alexis did well with us, and scored several crucial goals, but a lot of the time looked to be on a completely different wavelength to the rest.

 

Correct !

 

The day just got worse ..... ManU and Arsenal are supposedly in talks with Barca in regards to paying Samper's buy out clause of £8 million. !!!

 

inevitable

 

Yes, and for a while now it has seemed that chances of Samper making his career outside Barca are somewhat high. Barca B always produces more very good young players than the first team can have. Hopefully Samper steps up his game to make a real case for getting proper shot at Barca's first team, but I wouldn't bank on it, and anyway Busquets is not too old yet.

 

uh, source?

i assume you're referring to this Daily Star article from today?

but even that article doesn't say anything about any "talks" between anyone about anything.

all it says is that United had a scout watching the Villanovense match, and speculates that they might have been watching Samper.

 

No idea of source .. apart fromTwitter

 

Some cool early Liga stats, nice to see Halilovic in there in a couple categories in addition to the big 3. Nolito's on all 5 lists though that's meaningless if we don't sign him: